Thursday, 15 June 2017

Don't blame Raiola for Donnarumma's shock AC Milan exit

The notorious agent has been at the heart of much
early criticism, but the young goalkeeper's decision to defect is down
to the game's wider issues

As AC Milan’s fall from grace has continued over the past couple of
years, there has been just a single seemingly-unfailing bright light in
the wreckage. Gianluigi Donnarumma’s phenomenal rise to regular
first-team football at the age of 16 was the stuff of fairy tales.
It was the good news story onto which Milanisti could cling at their
lowest moments as their team scuffled around for positive results of any
sort. All Milan fans could relate to ‘Gigio’. He, like them, was a
Rossonero, and his successes were reflective of a dream he shared with
every supporter of a red and black faith.Donnarumma won't renew contract
But that now lies in ruins after it was announced by the club that
Donnarumma’s agent, Mino Raiola, had informed them it was his client’s
decision to “definitively” reject a new contract, leaving Milan facing
the probability of losing the jewel in their crown for peanuts when his
current deal expires in 12 months’ time.
Raiola’s role in the 18-year-old’s decision has quickly been
admonished by fans and pundits far and wide, with many seeing the
super-agent as the instigator of Donnarumma’s ultimate choice to look
elsewhere. The notorious Dutch-Italian wheeler-dealer has developed a
reputation for securing hugely-rewarding transfers for players such as
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mario Balotelli, Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan,
and his inculcation of the young keeper with a sense of his worth has
been pilloried far and wide.
Yet in truth, Raiola has done nothing other than exploit football’s
current administrative shortcomings for the good of his players. He
might be making huge sums of money for himself by farming Ibrahimovic,
Mkhitaryan and Pogba to Manchester United, Balotelli to anyone who’ll
take him, and alerting Donnarumma to the possibilities available to him,
but he is also making sure young men with the football-watching world
at their feet get the financial packages their talents deserve.
Morally, there are questions to be asked of Raiola, but the same can
be said of any agent who has ever helped to broker a deal. Better to
have a Raiola than one who has no deal with a player - yet still
attempts to stage a transfer between clubs without a prior agreement
with the player involved. All in all, the latest developments regarding
Donnarumma just underline the fact that football is in trouble of
swallowing itself whole if continued finance-first tactics eventually
persuade fans to simply stop watching.Juve fan dies of stampede injuries
But for those Milan fans who are too invested to stop caring,
Donnarumma’s decision comes like a knife to the heart. As the likes of
Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Manchester United are left
pondering a move for the superstar youngster, Milan have to face up to
life without their greatest of home-grown talents.
After watching the likes of Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Alessandro
Del Piero, Javier Zanetti and most recently Francesco Totti exit the
Italian stage in recent years, Serie A’s reputation as the home of
sentimentality is fading. Once Gianluigi Buffon retires in 12 months’
time, the last of the great bandieri will be gone.

Donnarumma was being singled out as the leader of the next generation
of dyed-in-the-wool club legends, but instead looks set to be just
another player lost to the power games of modern football.